Every time Roberta "Linda" DeMello applies for a job, she is competing with friends and former co-workers from now-shuttered Molokai Ranch.

It's not a good feeling on an island where everyone knows each other, said the 62-year-old DeMello.

She is among the 120 Molokai Ranch workers laid off when the ranch announced it would close three months ago. She desperately needs work because her unemployment benefits are not enough to cover the cancer treatment supplies she needs since doctors removed her bladder.

"I'm always home," DeMello said. "No more money. My main issue is my medical and my supplies. Everything is secondary. It's a really big pinch.

"I'm supposed to take it easy now. The doctor says I should talk about it because I do get depressed. It's so hard."

For many, living on Moloka'i was a hardscrabble lifestyle on a good day. But with the price of gas rising daily and so many more out of work, life there is getting harder.

Some people are leaving the island. Some are finding work on Maui and commuting. Others can only put food on the table by working the land and the sea.

The Neighbors in Need Fund is aimed specifically at people who lost their job recently. That includes workers at Molokai Ranch, Aloha Airlines, ATA and Weyerhaeuser Co., said Scott Morishige, Community Clearinghouse project manager for Helping Hands Hawai'i.

His agency is helping DeMello pay for medical supplies and gas money to get to her doctor, Mori-shige said. "Even just a small amount of money for gas is a huge help," Morishige said.

TIGHT MARKET

On Moloka'i there are few large employers. Monsanto, a company specializing in biotech corn seed crops, and Friendly Market, a 45-employee grocery store in Kaunakakai, are now the two main employers.

"I don't have any openings," said Jeff Egusa, president and manager of Friendly Market. "I haven't gotten many inquiries, maybe because people know we aren't hiring. People are fishing and stuff to get food and that's affecting our business a little bit."

DeMello, who worked at the ranch for nine years as a bartender and hostess, learned two years ago she had bladder cancer. She had health insurance then. She doesn't now, and her medical supplies cost $300 a month.

"My unemployment is really, really small," she said. "I go to the doctor every three months for check-ups. Knock on wood, I've been lucky so far. But now I'm changing my three month appointments to six months."

DeMello, who lives with her husband on Hawaiian homestead land, said she cannot be added to his policy because he works two part-time jobs. Still, she keeps looking for a new job.

She makes most of her job inquiries on the phone because gas is nearly $5 a gallon, she said.

"There aren't any jobs out here," DeMello said. "If there is an opening, you compete with your neighbors. We all compete for the same jobs."